Pacific racks up international sales

Most of us have been anticipating The Pacific to screen on Channel Seven sometime in 2009, but one recent article published on international formats website C21 indicates it won’t air on HBO until 2010.

The Spielberg-Hanks project, a follow-on from the successful Band of Brothers miniseries, has been sold into several major markets, including the UK, Germany, Canada and France.

The 10×60 miniseries has been acquired for channels in Germany, Austria, Holland, Switzerland, Hungary, Belgium and Romania, while TMN, Super Ecran and Movie Central have it in Canada. Belgian networks RTBF, Telenet and BETV and Iceland’s 365 Media also have the show. Further deals have been inked, or are in the final stages of negotiations, with channels in Japan, the Middle East, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Scandinavia and New Zealand.

“In fact, the only major markets where we haven’t sold The Pacific are Spain, Italy, Russia and Korea, where Band of Brothers was a very big hit,” said HBO’s Charles Schregers.

He described The Pacific not only as “the biggest thing HBO has ever done” but also “the biggest production in the history of television,” given the scale and scope of the miniseries. “It’s like making 10 major movies at once.”

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2 Comments:

It’s actually not that much less than the three lord of the rings films combined budget and run time. Not adjusting for inflation. Thats around 600 minutes and 285million. I was going to write saying how don’t expect even with the budget so high for it to be movie quality, even if way better than normal tv as its spred over 10 hours. Although the lord of the rings thing which came to me was an interesting comparison.

The biggest budget TV never does quite live up to film even when very good. Although newer technology now is a help, also the long post production while annoying as i want to see it now, is good for better quality effects work.